1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a photographic camera, particularly a collapsible photographic camera.
More particularly, the invention relates to a collapsible instant-picture photographic camera.
2. The Prior Art
Collapsible cameras per se are well known. Also known are collapsible instant-picture cameras, i.e., cameras of the type using self-developing film which is supplied in form of individual self-developing film sheets which are stored in, and withdrawn seriatim from, a film cassette.
In the early cameras of the self-developing type the withdrawal of each film sheet from the cassette, and its transportation to the outside of the camera, was effected manually. For this purpose pull-tabs were provided for the respective film sheets; these tabs were gripped by a user and pulled out of the camera to thereby transport the film sheet.
Such cameras are still available. However, in recent years instant-picture cameras have become known wherein the transportation of the film sheets is effected by a film transporting mechanism which is driven by an electric motor. The housing of these cameras has a film chamber for the film cassette, and the motor for the drive is accommodated in the housing either behind or above the film chamber.
These prior-art cameras have certain disadvantages. Because of the location of the motor and of the batteries which supply it with electrical energy, their housings are relatively bulky; this is undesirable not only from an aesthetic point of view but also because large-size cameras are disliked by the public at a time when in all other types of cameras there is a pronounced trend towards ever smaller dimensions so as to make the cameras easy to carry along. Furthermore, those additional portions of the housing (and hence of the overall bulk of the camera) which are required to accommodate the motor and batteries do not contribute to the ease of operation of the camera in any way. Also, when a cassette is received in the film chamber, the prior-art cameras as a rule do not permit access to the battery space (for inspection and/or replacement of the batteries) because the space is open to the film chamber and light could enter the latter and ruin the film sheets therein and/or because the film cassette blocks access to the battery space.